Hiroko Yakushimaru was a very popular actress in Japan in the early to mid 1980's. Early on in her career she appeared in several films for Nippon mega producer Haruki Kadokawa, including her first appearance, when she was 14, opposite Ken Takakura in the 1978 film Never Give Up, which was directed by Junya Sato (The Bullet Train, Proof of the Man) and as the lead in Nobuhiko Obayashi's School in the Crosshairs (1981). She is best known in the West for her performance as Princess Shizu in Kinji Fukasaku’s period piece Legend of the Eight Samurai. In Japan, however, her best known performance is as the schoolgirl Izumi Hoshi in the cult classic Sailor Suit and Machine Gun, featuring an infamous sequence where she blows through a room full of yakuza wearing a schoolgirl uniform (sailor suit) and wielding a machine gun. She is still active in films today.

Acting Toho Filmography
G.I. Samurai (1979) - Young Samurai
The Terrible Couple (1980) - Kei Yamaha
School in the Crosshairs (1981) - Yuka Mitamura
The Terrible Couple: Original Edition (1982)
Tasmania Story (1990) - Naoko Hirashima
Nurse Call (1993) - Kozue Igarashi
Magnitude (1997) - Yoko Hioki
The Lakeside Murder Case (2004) - Minako Namiki